Economic Development Partnership ‘Evaluating’ Contractual Relationship With Regional Chamber
Date Posted: June 30, 2017
Posted In: News, Organizations,
From St. Louis Business Journal: The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership is “evaluating” its contractual relationship with the St. Louis Regional Chamber, including an analysis of the costs and benefits, Partnership CEO Sheila Sweeney said Tuesday.
An anonymous letter purportedly written by chamber employees cited the relationship between the two organizations as evidence that the chamber performs poorly in economic development.
The contractual relationship between the partnership and chamber dates to 2013, when the partnership paid the chamber $75,000, documents obtained through an open-records request show. That number rose to $230,000 in 2014 and $245,000 in 2015, the records show, though those figures included other services, according to a partnership spokeswoman, Katy Jamboretz. The last detailed contract between the organizations was for 2015. In exchange for a $200,000 payment that year, the chamber said it would: promote St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis to companies considering locating or expanding in the region, plan and implement strategies geared toward growing existing business, market advantages of the region to companies considering national and international expansion, collaborate on special projects, cooperate with the World Trade Center – St. Louis “to ensure a collaborative approach to international trade,” and provide the partnership an annual report, among other things, according to a copy of the contract.